Last time we mentioned local Jamaican-born artist Clifton Powell, he was commissioned for the English Heritage exhibition, “The African Diaspora in England.” This time he has been commissioned by King Charles and a Windrush Portraits Committee, marking the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush to Britain, to participate in a series of Windrush portraits of pioneering members of the Windrush Generation, which are completed and already at Buckingham Palace.….
A sub-committee of the Windrush Commemoration Committee, comprising of Baroness Floella Benjamin, the Right Reverend Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Mr Rudolph Walker, and Ms Paulette Simpson, have selected ten artists and sitters. The completed portraits will become part of the Royal Collection and stand as a lasting memorial to all the men, women and children who came to Britain from the Caribbean and gave so much of themselves to rebuild a nation devastated by war.
His Majesty said, “it is, I believe, crucially important that we should truly see and hear these pioneers who stepped off the Empire Windrush at Tilbury in June 1948 – only a few months before I was born – and those who followed over the decades, to recognise and celebrate the immeasurable difference that they, their children and their grandchildren have made to this country,” and BBC Arts Today announced a documentary to commemorate National Windrush Day, Windrush: Portraits Of A Generation, to be aired on 22nd June.
Combining fluid draughtsmanship with realism and a dynamic use of colour, Clifton studied at The Jamaica School of Art in Kingston Jamaica before moving to the UK in the eighties. In London, he worked for leading framers Tempole Art, among many exhibits he exhibited at Bath’s Fairfield House, home of Emperor Haile Selassie, while he was exiled to England. Clifton is also a mentor and part of a team of artists at Arts Together, who deliver creative workshops for older people across 6 community groups in Wiltshire.
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